


We're Only Strangers Of Life

by JadeLoverXD



Series: Random stories of fandoms [10]
Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: Angst, Cade is a cinnamon roll ok?, F/M, Fluff, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-10
Updated: 2020-03-10
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:14:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23093173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JadeLoverXD/pseuds/JadeLoverXD
Summary: After Danse, after the destruction of the Institute, it's over.Except some things are never meant to be, just as some things are.
Relationships: Knight-Captain Cade/Female Sole Survivor
Series: Random stories of fandoms [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1530671
Comments: 5





	We're Only Strangers Of Life

Sole tugs her hood over her face, barely touching the tip of her nose but not to the point where she couldn't see as she walks carefully through the living quarters of The Prydwen. She had no intention of seeing Cade for her 'physical' exam even though she should after the blowing up the Institute—this time instead of it being a bunch of random questions there's poking and prodding. She didn't like showing others her body in any form of situation, even if she was injured (though she had no choice...) and really didn't like people knowing what was under her layers of clothes.

So instead, she all-but declined Maxon's order and made her way up the ladder to the top to visit Ingram—who really knew how to push her buttons. Sole shoves her hands in her pockets and tries to make her footsteps silent and not obvious, though it wasn't really necessary. The Prydwen was always buzzing with activity during the day, and she was pretty sure that Cade wouldn't be bothering her now that she's seen at least three people vomit over their table in the cafeteria. Cecil knows he can't be using too much of that oil but does it anyway.

She looks carefully through the maintenance bay for a certain red-head Proctor in an unarmoured suit of power armor. A metal hand clamps down on her shoulder as she does and she freezes, "You know you're supposed to report to Cade."

Sole turns and glowers under her hood, "I'm not really one to follow directions."

Ingram snorts, then sighs, "Coolant?"

"Down at the Castle ready to be transported."

"Great. That should keep this rust bucket in the air for the remainder of our stay. Now about your 'dramatic' time away..."

_Please don't ask. Please don't ask._

She continues, "Seems like I'm the only one with eyes behind my eyes. I can see that something happened when you left early. So spill."

Sole purses her lips and shifts on her feet. It wasn't that she felt uncomfortable when she had admit her feelings for him that night down at the airport. She didn't expect him to blank out and practically reject her—thankfully where no one could hear them. She left early the next day because she didn't want to spend another minute on the metal blimp to let her embarrassment fuel up.

"No wait, you finally told a certain someone how you felt about them, they unfortunately rejected you, and now you're doing your best to avoid them." A statement, not a question. 

"How did you—"

"Well, for one: You are looking around the room instead of looking at me. And two: Cade is behind you."  
Sole whips around, expecting the familiar piercing steel eyes and the smell of a wet forest.

"I fucking knew it." Ingram whispers, and Sole begins to turn away.

"Not in a bad way! I just... kind of expected Maxon or..." She knew she was going to say Danse. She hasn't yet made eye contact with Maxon ever since he'd killed him at Listening Post Bravo—that has been nearly four months ago. Her best friend had been killed by his friend and she couldn't forgive him for not sparing him, and refused to look anywhere near him. But even though she hadn't looked, she could feel remorse coming from the young Elder.

"I might've." She says after a long pause, and turns towards the work bench behind her so that no one could see her mouth as she spoke,

"Regardless of his nature, I would have, and not give a shit what everyone might think. He didn't deserve anything like that—not the synthetic part of him, not him being accused by the only ones he knew as family, and definitely, definitely didn't deserve to be killed by his friend." 

Under her hood a tear slips free. She missed her best friend, and she wondered if the real Danse would react poorly to the synth part of him. She knew the real him was as good as dead, so really, there was no point in wishing he were here—both synth and man were gone.

"Look, I'm sorry, Sole. But he was my friend too. You should at least get some rest, seems like everything and every decision you make takes a major toll out of you." And just like that, Ingram casts one look at her and leaves to help a troubled initiate with his power armor.

Sole takes her advice and walks through the crowded bay, through the cafeteria and past Quinlan's and Cade's offices. She doesn't pay attention to where her feet take her, but she does realize she's stopped in front of Danse's old quarters. She hasn't been in here ever since that first day without him. She took one look at the room and it made her sick to the point she panicked and immediately got of the ship.

The door silently creaks as she opens it. The room was still the same as he left it. His bed was nearly straightened, desk slightly cluttered and pictures of them and some kids hung from the wall. Some of the kids were those on the Prydwen, or those they'd rescued or found in local settlements. Danse had always brought them toys or snacks whenever they visited them, sometimes even taught them how to defend themselves while Sole told them stories of her own wild childhood.

She picks up a picture with just her and Danse. They'd both been at the beach at Spectacle Island watching the sun set, and Danse had took a picture of them both. She was sitting in his lap, eyes closed enjoying the slight coastal breeze while he had a slight smile on his lips, his eyes and hair turning gold in the sun's rays, all the while looking down at her—smiling. She lifts her hood back and chokes back a sob.

This was one of her favorite pictures. His too. They'd both shared the same feeling for photography and a sweet tooth for anything sweet, mainly snack cakes. 

And without her partner, her best friend, her heart felt empty, she felt like she had no purpose. Her feelings for Cade might as well have dropped out the box. He practically rejected her behind that pillar down at the airport, so there's that...

She carefully puts the picture back where it is and starts taking off her clothes and puts on one of his old T-shirts and plops down on the bed.

She takes her pip-boy off, runs at her wrist and lays down. She doesn't close her eyes, just lays there, imagining her best friend were there with her.

* * *

Three soft knocks sound throughout the dark room. Sole ignores it and goes back to sleep.

A minute later, it's full out pounding, "Sole I know you're in there..." Freezing, she checks the time on her pip-boy and sighs. Sooner or later he was going to come for her. She doesn't bother with pants, either, or lights. 

She stomps over to the metal door and doing it open, revealing a steel colored gaze, "What?"

"You haven't been visiting." His gaze looks her over, and she resists the urge to shiver, "Have you been sleeping?"

"That's kind of dumb to ask considering the fact that you've just disturbed a peaceful slumber." She hadn't really been sleeping well. Just another night of tossing and turning, never with nightmares, though.

"I'm sorry, but Maxon wanted you to come by earlier, and you didn't." He steps inside without Sole telling him to and turns on the light that makes her eyes water. Danse had never gotten that lamp replaced because he knew it annoyed her. And now she didn't even want to remove not a trace of him from this room. 

_Everyone I love has a habit of being taken away from me,_ She told him once, and I'm not sure if that's supposed to mean something... Or if it is just Life being a bitch by ruining everything I've tried and tried so hard to mend. And you're the only thing I have close to home left. If something happened you, Danse, I think I would be nothing more than a shell waiting for anything to finish me off.

And Danse had held her throughout her sobbing. She was the only thing he had as a sister who actually cared for him.

"I'm not doing the stupid thing. I'm tired and I want to sleep." She notices the way he fidgets when he looks over at the desk and asks, "

Something wrong?"

"No. I mean yes, maybe. Look I know you won't do the exam, and that's not exactly what I'm here for." Cade sighs and sits in the nearby chair. "I'm sorry for leaving you like that—at the airport."

"Why are you apologising?"

"I clearly made you feel as if I didn't want you. Truth is, I do." Sole blinks and waits, he continues, "When you came and told me how you felt, I panicked and said anything that would get me out and away. I didn't know how to handle... that type of situation." 

Sole watches as he runs the back of his neck and frowns, "What do you mean you didn't know how to handle that type of situation?"

He colors slightly, "I've... never been the one to initiate conversations with women."

"You don't seem to have a problem when you are busy being doctor." She says with a raised brow.

"I meant on an... intimate level."

Sole watches as the older man shades a deep red before he clears his throat and stands a good foot or so taller than her. The awkwardness was really unexpected yet expected coming from him. She knew a few men who were just like him before the bombs had fell, not many left nowadays. 

"Apology accepted." She says after a silence later, and stares into his eyes. 

Cade rubs the back of his neck almost sheepishly and exhales, "I—for what it's worth, I'm sorry about Danse. None of us knew how close you two are—were." 

He gets up to leave, almost in a hurried pace before she grabs his arm and turns him around. "We were like siblings. We watched each others backs..." Her voice cracks a bit just as the dam breaks again. She holds him by both of his biceps just as he holds her from falling, "We've always been inseparable in our time together, you know? Like Lilo and Stitch.

"And because the Brotherhood has a stick shoved too far up its ass to realize that Synths still have the memories of the original person who didn't ask for any of the things the Institute does to them to happen, or Ghouls and the fact that radiation from those Atomic bombs that fell on that fateful day was not their fault. They still bleed the same, breathe the same, live the same. _They are still human!"_ She spat that last part out with such venom to make even Cade flinch. Her tears had long stopped, and now she was just brewing with an anger she was afraid of delving into at the wrong time.

"And now thanks to Maxon, my only scrap of stability is gone, leaving me with only two options: I can either finish myself off or..." She lets go or his arms and steps away, her body feeling ice cold and even smaller than before.

Sole clears her throat as she stares at the wall behind him with a distant look, "Or let whoever or whatever finish off whatever is left of me."

She doesn't even notice him move towards her and tilts her chin up with two cool fingers, "Why would you say that?" He questions, his clipboard discarded on the ground as he grips her face with both hands.

"Weren't you listening? _I have nothing to live for!_ Everyone _I love and care for has a habit of being taken away from me!"_

She hated that he was calm throughout her snarling her rage. Hated that he didn't even try to argue with her telling her she needed to be stronger than what she was now—that life was going to chew her in the bum. 

He didn't, though. 

He sat her down and explained why he understood her reaction.   
He had a wife and daughter before Danse had become knight. He was forced to watch as a group of Mercenaries tore into his family, even when they were lifeless corpses before the Brotherhood unit had arrived hours too late. But he did find out one truth. 

His daughter—a sixteen year-old with his smarts was a synth. When they had brought his family's remains to the Capital Wasteland. They didn't show any remorse for his daughter's corpse behind his back—that much he knew. And he even wondered if the Brotherhood are the real enemy. He'd seen the fearful looks of others on them—had sometimes been spat on. His wife had been incinerated down to ashes and scattered throughout her favorite spot in the city where she could actually have a moment for herself. For his daughter, they'd also incinerated what they could and dumped her metallic bones into the scrap yard. The only piece of her he'd saved was her brain—the tiny device no bigger than a small quarter size of his palm. 

And the one he wore behind his tags.

"I'm sorry for yelling at you." Sole apologizes after a while.

"It's fine. You needed it." 

"Do I still have to do that stupid test?"

"Did you not stand and take in possible radiation from that blast?"

**Author's Note:**

> BEG ME FOR MORE!!!  
> BEG!!!!


End file.
